This is the woman who got into trouble for interviewing Mullah Ohmar, Taliban leader.
I did not see this article at the time, as after 8 months out of work, in Oct. I was hired by The Burma Fund.
Then my colleagues and I were invited to a session downtown where I think, starting Radio Free Afghanistan was discussed. Often you can't tell what the objective of these sessions are. I remember a woman from Internews in a red dress seemed happy to get funding to broadcast to Afghanistan.
The later Internews founder, had worked at the station while I was there.
During the break, I heard 2 people talking near me, and by their conversation, I realized the woman was this Pashtun broadcaster chatting with a man who was an Afghanistan expert.
He asked her something like, "Oh, are you still there? I thought you were fired."
And she said something or the other.
I knew about it as I had been reading William Safire in the NYTs.
These sorts of problems still remain in the govt radio stations, as I call them.
At RFA Burmese, in c. 1998 they ran into problems for interviewing Brigadier Aung Gyi who said on air (a 2 part interview by THS) he had come to America with money from his wife selling her diamond ear rings.
When the flack broke, they asked me to translate, and big bust honey voice or flat chest croaking voice like a frog, depending on wh way you look at it, came into my cubicle and tried to do damage control and manipulate my translation.
I was so angry I handed the big Marantz tape recorder back to her, "Here, why don't you do it yourself, you know English and you know Burmese."
Presently, the asst VP Alex C, came and asked me to please finish the translation.
So I did, and I translated it exactly as it was worded in Burmese by THS and broadcast.
When I finished, of course I did not give it to THS. The jerk boss at the time was in SE Asia.
I told Pat Lute, the PR person at that time, and Pat came to my desk and Click, she sent it direct to the US Embassy email in Rangoon.
So flat chest and jerk were very angry with me, but why did they broadcast that junk to begin with.
So you see, these sorts of problems are not instrinsic to the Pashtun section alone.
It was alleged that these 2 were children of navy officials and pro-junta.
The woman went back to London.
The man lost his job about 2006 or 7, for asking an interviewee their beloved trick question,
"If we ask you to speak badly of D. ASSK will you do it?"
There was a gender discrimination case as they hired a woman and I found this all out by reading DC Superior Court Records/Archives on line.
The man was then fired as on acct of him, the Court ruled the station pay the plaintiff 300,000 in damages.
Great manager.
When harassing me, he used to say, "But then they (his superiors) will say I am not doing my job."
When did "good management" mean manipulating and harassing your staff.
Anyway, I think their karma will catch up with them, as it has to some extent already.
They also had to pay the staff they
fired in 2012, right when Daw Suu was in town.
One of the posts in Burmese I put up recently came from 1988 group email in 2012, and complained about the rude way the other woman, now section head, interviewed Daw S.
It's true, she leaned back in her seat, asked offensive questions and to top it all off, was ugly too.
Daw S. handled it well with her customary elan and cool.
KMKaung
8-28-2015
